Crohn’s disease and allergies – Ulrike Geilfus

I want to go through life, not stagger through it!

I am 58, blind. My diagnosis is Crohn’s disease with operations including resections. In addition, there is a fat and iron utilization disorder and allergies.

Due to the bowel resections, my metabolism changed every time, but no doctor ever made me aware of the changes that the operations entailed. I felt more and more how food was draining my energy, damaging me instead of giving me strength. Half an hour after breakfast I was already staggering around, my strength was draining from my bones and I couldn’t do anything. Plus this constant nervous vibration inside me.

How can I find a toilet quickly as a blind person? So better to stay at home?

My eye disease caused me stress, which I didn’t need. As a blind person, how can I find a toilet quickly in an emergency? It was unacceptable, so I stayed at home more and more. Conventional nutritional advice only brought the tip “to try what works”. With so many restrictions? How should I be able to assign this? Some reactions were so violent that I could relate to them, but I wanted to WALK through life, not stagger!

GP advised against the Cytolisa test, but I persevered

A GP advised against a food intolerance test, but I persevered. I found the target in my blind eye in the form of a patient on the bus who told me about the Cyto Lab. Changed doctors and finally got support. With my previous illness, even the health insurance company supported this. Land in sight at last.

Called the Cyto lab, the process was quick and uncomplicated. That’s how it should be and after just a few days the results are nice and clear (even for me as a magnifying glass reader).

A woman sees RED! All red, red, red, what’s left for me if I include metabolic disorders and allergies? Fortunately, you are not left alone with this. I always looked forward to the telephone consultation. In the meantime, I made a note of questions and was able to work through them all or get answers. It was not only the factual, technical aspects, but also the personal support at each stage of the dietary change that did me a lot of good. I felt heard, understood. Here was someone who not only knew his way around the world of IgGs, proteins and nutrients, but had also had his own experiences with them and knew what they do to the soul.

I had read in the accompanying booklet that you should seek psychological help if your soul is depressed by the changeover.

Symptoms of withdrawal

I just smiled tiredly. Me old hand…. but I completely underestimated it. I had all the symptoms of withdrawal. First the dry rush with this exuberant energy, the euphoria, then the disillusionment. I dreamed of empty trays, was constantly hungry, lost weight (and I was already underweight). I felt deprived until I realized that I could eat anything if I wanted to. I can also drink toilet cleaner, but I don’t WANT to. Once I had made the decision that it was MY will and in MY power to change something about my condition, it was easier. Sift through food, give it away. Why should I be harmed for a few more days by something I can’t tolerate just because it’s still in the cupboard? The neighbors were delighted.

My soul rattled around inside me like a pea in a shoebox, but that passed.

Eating out with others or simply stopping off somewhere spontaneously is a thing of the past for me. I miss that very much. I didn’t realize how many social contacts work through food. If I sit there and eat nothing or eat differently, I am the stranger on whom things are imposed. Colossally annoying.

It took a long time for those around me to accept that I ate differently

My tip, if something is imposed on you, is to ask the giver if he really wants me to get sick and if so, whether he will stay with me and suffer with me. Then it’s quiet. It took a long time for my environment to accept my different eating habits. As my intestines damage themselves daily due to the short bowel syndrome, I will only be “cured” to a limited extent, but I find the status I have now achieved very satisfactory. I look forward to every meal, no matter how simple it is, immerse myself again and again in the world of metabolism and food, experiment, recover from setbacks and continue to fine-tune my diet.

I would never have thought that a change in diet would bring up such existential feelings in me – I experienced it like a grieving process.

But in this new life, I have 14 hours of energy for the day and can get on the bus and train without having to think about the toilet. I have strength and nerves when I get lost and don’t know where I am again. In short, I now have the strength to deal with my blindness and face everyday life, which is so exhausting with the associated limitations.

My gut lies calmly within me and knows that the path will be found. Of course I dream of a piece of cheese every now and then, mourning over a Klappstulle, but without the change in diet it really wouldn’t be living, it would just be surviving, vegetating.

I now know what I want and what is good for me

When I have something edible in front of me, I ask myself: do I want to harm myself or do I want to do something good? I now know what I want and what is good for me.

A big thank you to the Cyto team, who are always tinkering with new recipes and have given me this good, new life and have accompanied me so well on this journey.

Greetings from Ulrike Geilfus from Pohlheim.

 

Find out more about the Cytolisa Immune Test and the nutrition program here